Shopping, bopping (and eating) (Downtown Disney)

Member Name: Tupps

Product:	Downtown Disney
Date:	17/06/09 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great shops; great atmosphere

Disadvantages: Crowded; Rainforest Cafe over-priced

Downtown Disney is a great area of the Disney World Resort, Florida - it's lovely to walk around in the evenings in particular. It's basically Disney's answer to Universal's CityWalk (full of shops and restaurants) but Downtown Disney is far more family orientated.

There are some great shops here for Disneyaholics including the world's largest Disney store, World of Disney. You should be able to find anything in here with a Disney flavour.

There's another shop next door but I can't remember it's name; this one too is full of Disney items but is more household type stuff, from furniture to accessories.

There's a lovely store full of collectables, from Swarovski crystal figurines to absolutely tiny porcelain Disney characters. Also globes and various artworks. This shop is packed with the most fragile items so watch out for bags and little kids! And also bear in mind how you might transport any purchases you make back home.

Other stores in Downtown Disney include a Christmas shop, which is open all year, and a huge Lego store. When we went, there was an 8ft Lego sculpture of Yoda just inside the store entrance. There are also various Lego sculptures dotted around the wider Downtown area, such as a shark, a family walking their dogs, and a large dragon in the lake.

There are various eateries here which are very popular indeed. Planet Hollywood had a wait time of around 2 hours before we would be eating so we headed to the Rainforest Cafe, not much better really at over an hour before we were served.

The Rainforest Cafe is (as its name would suggest) rainforest themed. As you enter, you walk through swathes of 'trees' and there are all kinds of 'jungle' type noises. There are also lots of animatronic animals and every 16 minutes, a 'storm' breaks out, the 'rain' falls and the animals all come to 'life': the elephants trumpet etc. This is by far the best thing about this place. The food is average and massively over-priced.

7 of us went to dinner in the Rainforest Cafe; the bill came to just under $300. It was by far the most expensive meal out we had in the entire 2 week holiday. And we only ate average things too: pizza, burgers and chips and my mum had some kind of hotpot!

I think, on reflection, I would just visit this place for a drink. You still get to experience the 'rainforest' without being ripped off for the food!

Downtown Disney is a great area to explore and there's plenty of other things here too: Pleasure Island is a nightclub for over 21's (and take I.D. as America is VERY strict on age/alcohol; you won't be able to wing it!)

There's also Disney's Interactive Indoor Theme Park - I've never been in here so I can't comment; and something called Disney's Wide World of Sports. Again, I have no experience of this place.

The Rainforest Cafe aside, Downtown Disney is just great for a couple of your evenings in Disney World, Florida, but I would recommend going on a weeknight rather than a Saturday night. The Downtown area gets very crowded of an evening; on a Saturday night you can barely move and you'll wait even longer for a restaurant table.

Summary: A great place to spend an evening or two in Disney World